Pssst, did you hear that the city hired....

Well it hasn't exactly been the same as one of those American style confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, but in it's own peculiar way the City of Prince Rupert has sort, of kind of, introduced us to the new Director of Recreation at the Civic Centre.

In the 2010 Active living guide recently posted to the City's website and we imagine available in print form some-place in the city, Mr. Rudy Kelly is listed as the contact person at the Recreation complex, holding down the top listing of the senior staff of the Recreation Complex.

The listing of Mr. Kelly and the remainder of the staff appears on page four across from a glowing testimonial and farewell to former Diretor of Recreation Michael Curnes, where those remaining will have to apparently follow his lead in the "legacy of best practices in recreation." 

The then rumoured appointment of Mr. Kelly recently was one of the more excitable of talking points this month on the local community portal hackingthemainframe, where some participants expressed their concerns over the process of selection of civic employees and what parameters may be used in the selection process.

It's an ongoing debate for some in the community, watchful over city hirings dating back more than a few years, and one of those civic issues that occasionally pops up on the radar, just ask former Mayor Herb Pond about that issue.

What seems unusual for such a high profile position is that so far to our knowledge there hasn't been any formal introduction to the public about their newest municipal public servant, no announcement trumpeting what he hopes to bring to the position, nor any background from the city on the exhaustive search that took place to fill the position, the volume of qualified candidates that applied and such or the path they took to select their candidate. The usual type of thing that typically comes with these kinds of personnel changes.

Likewise, we haven't heard much about the vacant competition for the Economic Development Officer position. No update on the progress of that decision has been provided as of yet, even though applications closed for that career opportunity at the start of May.  Almost one month later we have no idea, how many candidates may be on the short list or how close we are to a new face in the office to carry the torch of Economic Development.

Maybe like the Recreation Department, we'll have to wait for the next Economic Development office newsletter to be put in the loop on the happenings there, though we wonder if Nellie Cheng will receive a similar testimonial as that of Mr. Curnes.

The rather secretive nature of the city's selection process on high profile positions tends to continue on with the image of a less than transparent process and would seem to once again reinforce for the locals that the city operates on a we know best ethos, when it comes to the delivery of information on their internal decisions.

With that level of mystery on key positions, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise for the city then if people question those policies and those who make the decisions.